Philippines: Frontline gov’t agencies given the power to implement temporary emergency measures to address COVID-19

By Genalyn Kabiling

The whole of government is moving to implement “cohesive and harmonious” efforts to overcome the coronavirus pandemic in the country based on a new Palace order.

President Duterte has authorized concerned heads of government agencies to implement “temporary emergency measures,” from protecting health workers, hastening the accreditation of testing kits, to providing financial aid to poor families in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

[...]

“To achieve our aim of overcoming this present threat, the simultaneous government efforts on different fronts must be cohesive and harmonious. Thus, the whole of government must work together towards the following objectives: protect and support our health workers and front liners; provide the supplies and equipment necessary for detecting the disease and caring for those infected; ensure that community quarantines are effectively implemented; deliver essential necessities such as food and medicine to the most vulnerable; keep essential and critical utilities and businesses running and their processes uninterrupted; provide temporary economic relief to Filipinos and businesses; and, mobilize all state assets to sustain the operations of the government,” it said.

In the memorandum, the Secretary of the Department of Health is authorized by the President to implement measures to prevent the coronavirus spread as well as expedite and streamline the accreditation of testing kits and facilitate prompt testing, and the compulsory and immediate isolation and treatment of patients.

[...]